When the announcement came that Dad’s Army would be turned into a new film, avid fans of the beloved British sit-com had their doubts.

Not least 83-year-old Edgware resident Frank Williams, who played tetchy vicar Reverend Timothy Farthing in the original series about the haphazard team of Home Guard volunteers.

“My initial reaction was ’You really shouldn’t do that, because it’s such an iconic programme’,“ remembers the actor, “but when I thought about it, I thought Jimmy Perry and David Croft, who wrote Dad’s Army, created such wonderful characters it would be really interesting to see some other actors having a go at it.“

Featuring an all-star cast, including Toby Jones as Captain Mainwaring, Bill Nighy as Sergeant Wilson and Michael Gambon as Private Godfrey, the film is due out in February 2016.

And Frank, who is currently touring his Dad’s Army nostalgia show Well Really, Captain Mainwaring!, has a cameo role as the Reverend Williams along with his friend and colleague Ian Lavender – formerly Private Pike – who now plays the more highly ranked character Brigadier Pritchard.

“I always said that Dad’s Army was the happiest time of my career and so it was nice to go back to it,“ enthuses the veteran actor, whose show is coming to the Wyllyotts Theatre.

“It’s a wonderful cast of people – Michael Gambon, Bill Paterson, Alison Steadman – heroes of my life really.“

Acting is a life-long passion for Frank, who frequently visited the Palace Theatre in Watford as a boy to see the weekly repertory shows.

Growing up in Edgware – Frank even stayed in the district for most of World War Two despite two bombs falling close by – he was spoilt for choice of cinemas and theatre, with the West End only a short journey away.

After paving his way as an actor with a part in the 1950s ITV sit-com The Army Game about National Service conscription, Frank joined Dad’s Army and stayed with the series for eight years from 1969 to 1977.

He toured with the stage production until 1976, following its West End début the previous year, and filmed the actors relaxing backstage – some of which he will show the audience in Potters Bar.

But his fondest memories lie in shooting the series on location in Thetford, Norfolk, which became the fictional town of Walmington-on-Sea.

“There’s a big army training area there which was taken over by the army at the beginning of the Second World War. On that training area there was nothing post-1939, so it was an absolutely ideal place to do some of the filming,“ explains the former Hendon School student.

“Looking back it seems like an ideal time: the weather was always marvellous, in fact I only remember once we had to stop because of rain, so it was an idyllic time and it was enormous fun.

“The cast themselves were really nice people it was like being with your second family as it were.

“We would film all day, then go back to the hotel have a drink, we’d probably eat together and it was just a lovely way of life.“

Frank is one of just two surviving members of the original line-up, following the death of Pamela Cundell, who played the flirtatious Mrs Fox, earlier this year.

“It’s sad,“ he muses. “But one has to look at the cast in 1975 when we were doing the stage show, Arnold Ridley celebrated his 80th birthday, so he and John Laurie would be about 120 if they were still alive today, so I suppose it was inevitable in a way that one would lose the other members of the cast.“

Frank, who is approaching his 84th birthday this year, is still writing and playing an active role at John Keble church in Mill Hill alongside the tour of his show.

“Actors don’t retire,“ he quips.

Well Really, Captain Mainwaring!, Wyllyotts Theatre, Darkes Lane, Potters Bar, Sunday, May 24, 4pm. Details: 01707 645005, wyllyottstheatre.co.uk